World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- New Zealand
If ever mortals were projected into a hell of torture and suffering
it was the men of the 5th Reinforcements. Coming straight from the
transports, they arrived at No. 2 Post on August 8, and were summarily
introduced to modern war. Hundreds of wounded had been carried
down from the bloody slopes of Chunuk and were laid in rows in the
neighbourhood of No. 2 Post, in readiness to be carried along the Big
Sap, and so to the piers as soon as it was dark. These men of the 5th
Reinforcements had served little apprenticeship to active service; but
they had heard of the casualties of the landing at Anzac and Helles,
and some have written that at first they were of the impression that
these rows of wounded men were an everyday occurrence! In a sort of
nightmare, not knowing whither they were going, or even the name of
the dere they traversed, these men dived into the trenches on Chunuk
Bair and found themselves among Wellington and Otago Infantry, Auckland
and Wellington Mounteds--the heroic band of brothers clinging to Chunuk
and prepared to die there. A great proportion did die there; but they
held Chunuk! Into this company of heroes stumbled the men of the Fifths.
They were greeted with "dig for your lives for dawn is not far away,
and if you haven't got cover by then, you're dead men!" All through
the night the digging, the bombing, and the shooting continued. Rifle
barrels got so hot they had to be discarded, and a rifle from a dead
man used. Ammunition and water were collected. Some men used three
rifles, turn and turn about.
[Illustration: CARRYING WOUNDED TO THE PICKET BOATS.]
With dawn came the lyddite shells from the Navy. Dense rolls of yellow
smoke curled round the hills. Small coloured flags were waved to
indicate our position to the Navy.
The suffering from thirst was terrible. When relief did come, men
crowded round the wells at No. 2 and drank tin after tin of the
precious water.
The Valleys of Torment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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